High early patency rate following free internal mammary artery grafting

We performed 28 coronary artery bypass procedures using the free internal mammary artery (IMA) from 1988–1991. An average of 3.6 coronary artery bypass grafts per patient were constructed, with 1.5 distal anastomoses per patient with each free IMA graft. We constructed proximal anastomoses between the ascending aorta and the free IMA. There was one operative death (3.6%). Early graft patency, 42 days as assessed by angiography, was 97.3%. The clinical and patency results (97%) obtained in our series confirm that the free internal mammary artery can be successfully employed instead of the saphenous vein in situations where the in-situ internal mammary artery graft is too short.